4 ms·

Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? It's right at the start of the article. You did read the article, didn't you?

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? That’s a publicity stunt, not a crime-fighting measure. I do not count five hundred AirTags as “burning city funds.”
- asldkfjaslkdj 3y ago
  [flagged]
tehjoker 3y ago
On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.
- vkou 3y ago
  The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.
  - dheera 3y ago
    > The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that different from reporting your credit card as stolen.
    - vkou 3y ago
      > That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected.... It would be far cheaper... Designing and deploying an automatic system for 'Automatically deploying spike strips', (besides being a bad idea) in a city like NYC will be an eight-figure sort of project. That will assure that in the best-case scenario, a car theft will run four-figures worth of damages. In the worst case, it will do nothing, because the car's been abandoned, or is being taken apart in a Jersey chop-shop by the time you report it stolen.
      - dheera 3y ago
        > Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.
        vkou 3y ago
        > we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... > I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars. Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day. Whether it comes out of your taxes, or your insurance premiums, or from your pocketbook, you'll still be paying. I know that all costs being equal, I'd rather live in a world with fewer car, or cat, or copper thefts, or any other negative-sum activity than one with more of them. There's no magic bullet for this, though, which is why each mitigation should be considered on its own costs and merits.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag Which is affected by the mayor, a former cop, name dropping AirTags in relation to car thefts in the press.
- bell-cot 3y ago
  By the standards of either the NYC budget, or Apple's finances, $12,500 is a rounding error.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    They can send all their rounding errors to me then, I'll happily take them.
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      Okay. Note that half of them will be negative. Have fun.
      - RoyGBivCap 3y ago
        I always mess up some mundane detail...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
s1artibartfast 3y ago
The city didnt even buy them. A non profit did. >The Association for a Better New York (ABNY), a nonprofit founded by New York real estate developer Lewis Rudin in the 1970s and responsible for the "I <3 NY campaign," paid for the 500 AirTags.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? That’s a publicity stunt, not a crime-fighting measure. I do not count five hundred AirTags as “burning city funds.”

asldkfjaslkdj 3y ago
[flagged]

tehjoker 3y ago

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

vkou 3y ago
The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.
- dheera 3y ago
  > The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that different from reporting your credit card as stolen.
  - vkou 3y ago
    > That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected.... It would be far cheaper... Designing and deploying an automatic system for 'Automatically deploying spike strips', (besides being a bad idea) in a city like NYC will be an eight-figure sort of project. That will assure that in the best-case scenario, a car theft will run four-figures worth of damages. In the worst case, it will do nothing, because the car's been abandoned, or is being taken apart in a Jersey chop-shop by the time you report it stolen.
    - dheera 3y ago
      > Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.
      - vkou 3y ago
        > we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... > I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars. Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day. Whether it comes out of your taxes, or your insurance premiums, or from your pocketbook, you'll still be paying. I know that all costs being equal, I'd rather live in a world with fewer car, or cat, or copper thefts, or any other negative-sum activity than one with more of them. There's no magic bullet for this, though, which is why each mitigation should be considered on its own costs and merits.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag Which is affected by the mayor, a former cop, name dropping AirTags in relation to car thefts in the press.
bell-cot 3y ago
By the standards of either the NYC budget, or Apple's finances, $12,500 is a rounding error.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  They can send all their rounding errors to me then, I'll happily take them.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    Okay. Note that half of them will be negative. Have fun.
    - RoyGBivCap 3y ago
      I always mess up some mundane detail...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

s1artibartfast 3y ago

The city didnt even buy them. A non profit did. >The Association for a Better New York (ABNY), a nonprofit founded by New York real estate developer Lewis Rudin in the 1970s and responsible for the "I <3 NY campaign," paid for the 500 AirTags.